Reviews

The gold standard for password vaults on the Mac is 1Password. Now in its fifth major release, 1Password has matured along with its userbase. One of its most stalwart longtime competitors, LastPass, has had an iOS version, but OS X customers have had to work through browser plug-ins or its website, putting it at a disadvantage.

When we got our hands on the original Icontrol Piper in July 2014, we concluded that the security-camera/Z-Wave-hub combo had room to grow. The addition of night vision (a $70 premium over the original device, which remains available) is a good step forward for the hardware, but the Piper's true potential remains untapped.

My first impression of Netgear's white, pod-like Arlo security camera--reviewed here as part of a two-camera starter pack--was that it might be the progeny of Wall-E and Eva. I wanted to hide behind a rock when the infrared illumination surrounding the lens kicked in.

The brain behind Cryptocat and miniLock is back with yet another tool designed to make your day-to-day life more secure. Peerio, Nadim Kobeissi's latest creation, is a cloud-based, end-to-end encrypted communications suite that lets you send messages and share files as easily as you use Gmail or Skype's IM tool.

One of the fastest growing segments of the cloud landscape is file sync and share, extending cloud storage with collaborative capabilities to maximise employee productivity, all without sacrificing – as much as is possible – the need for security.

People with children often experience a role reversal later in life: They transition from caring for their kids to having their kids care for them. If your parents are at that stage, you might already be struggling to keep them healthy and safe without impinging on their privacy and independence. That's where Evermind comes in.

Earlier this week we took a look at LastPass' new Auto-Password Change--a beta feature that, as its name suggests, automatically changes your passwords for you. With Auto-Password Change there's no need to jump through a confusing jumble of websites to change your passwords. Just make a few clicks lets you change each password right within LastPass itself.

The number and complexity of cyber threats leveled against enterprises of all sizes these days is staggering. There's everything from advanced persistent threats created by well-sponsored nation states to disgruntled <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/article/2692093/security0/data-protection-165097-disgruntled-employees-lash-out.html">insiders</a> looking to make a fast buck or enact revenge for some perceived wrongdoing.

Looking to free yourself or your employees from the painful logistics of traveling with a laptop? Liked the looks of Windows to Go, but wanted the peace of mind that hardware security brings? You need to check out the Imation IronKey W700 Workspace--a hardware-encrypted, FIPS 140-2 level-3 validated, USB 3.0 Windows to Go thumb drive that can be managed remotely. It's the first of its breed and as secure a compute-on-any-PC solution as you'll find. It's also expensive.

Password management is big business, and with good reason: the weakest link in your network's security is the human component -- the one that can succumb to social engineering, phishing, or inadvertently running the wrong program at the right time (for the keylogging malware, at least).
And then there are passwords, the proverbial keys to the kingdom.

If you're a frequent Macworld reader, the topic of "good" passwords is unlikely to be new to you. My colleagues and I never seem to tire of recommending the use of a password manager to help you keep tabs on your digital secret handshakes--alongside other bits of private data like credit card numbers--and avoid falling into bad practices that can have dire consequences on everything from your job to your finances.

It's no stretch to say that ads are what make the Web go 'round. The content you're reading right now? Paid for by ads. Google, Facebook, Pandora, YouTube? Driven by ads. This is not a new concept: TV and radio have relied on commercials since their earliest days. Because, let's face it, <em>something</em> has to pay for all the free programming and services.

D-Link is targeting the DIY crowd with its cloud-based connected-home platform, which includes very basic lighting control, a motion detector, a limited number of its IP cameras, and mobile apps for programming and control. But this system has a long way to go before I can recommend it as the foundation of anyone's smart home.

Plug D-Link's DSP-W215 Wi-Fi Smart Plug into an AC outlet and you can use your smartphone or tablet to monitor and control any device that you plug into it--locally or from wherever you have Internet access. You can also integrate the Smart Plug into D-Link's broader Connected Home Platform. But since it's designed to control anything from a lamp to an oscillating fan, control is limited to turning the device on or off. It can't do other useful things, such as dimming a connected lamp.

Maybe you're going out of town for a while; maybe you live in a rough neighborhood; maybe you just wonder what your pets are up to all day. No matter the reason, the $50 Periscope Pro (Mac App Store link) from ZipZapMac can help you keep an eye on your domicile.

Historically, Bitdefender has ranked as one of the best performing antivirus programs, and its Internet Security 2015 security suite ($60 for one year of protection on one PC) keeps it near the top of the heap. If you don't need the extra features--secure cloud storage or anti-theft protection for mobile devices--that are increasingly being offered as part of "total security" packages, then this suite will ably secure your PC with little to no input from you.

Thanks to the fallout from the revelations about the U.S. government's surveillance tactics, people are starting to take interest in using encryption tools for keeping email, files, and instant messaging private. Just recently, Yahoo said it would build encryption into Yahoo Mail and Google is doing something similar with Gmail.

The wireless Matias Secure Pro keyboard's number-one claim to fame is its 128-bit AES encryption. I'll get into that later. My favorite feature is that it's quiet. You'd hardly know this was a mechanical keyboard from the sound it makes. It's close to the volume level of a typical membrane keyboard, if a little sharper or clickier at times. You could use this board in any office or in a bedroom without disturbing a soul.

Android security suites generally have a lot of tricks up their sleeves, but Lookout Premium has taken it up a notch with anti-theft and recovery features. The program's variety of email alert settings is without peer. That said, the latest results from AV-TEST pegged Lookout as below par in malware detection and perhaps too aggressive in picking out suspect software.

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